Editing Blackford County, Indiana (section)

===Post-gas boom===
[[Image:Hartford City Waterworks Building.jpg|thumb|alt=Hartford City's waterworks building with date on front of building of 1894|right|Hartford City's waterworks, built in 1894]] [[Image:Baptist Church Montpelier IN.jpg|thumb|alt=Old red-brick church building with arched entrance and stained-glass window |right|Montpelier's historic Baptist Church, built during Montpelier's Oil Boom]]
The Indiana Gas Boom ended during the first decade of the 20th&nbsp;century,<ref>{{harvnb|Glass|Kohrman|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C02PktLMIx8C&dq=gas+boom+ghost+town+indiana&pg=PA91 91]|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref> reducing the county's economy. Gas and oil workers left, some manufacturers moved, and service industries were forced to cut back operations. Adding to the county's problems, machines made the labor–intensive method originally used for producing window glass obsolete, causing many of the county's skilled glass workers at the large American Window Glass plant to lose their jobs.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 13, 1908 |title=Human Blowers Thing of the Past – Machines Replacing Skilled Trades and Obsolete Methods of Manufacture of Window Glass |work=Daily Times Gazette (Hartford City, Indiana) |page=1 |quote=By June 1 three fourths of the window glass plants now operating by the obsolete way with human blowers will be out of blast and by July all will be idle, many never to resume by the old plan.}}</ref> By 1932, the window glass plant of the county's former largest employer was closed.<ref name="StarGlass">{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Scott |date=December 1, 2002 |title=East Central Indiana's Glass legacy |work=The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana) |page=4A}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|A second source says the American Window Glass plant closed in 1929 instead of 1932.<ref>{{harvnb|Blackford County Historical Society (Ind.)|1986|p=89}}</ref>|group=Note}} According to the United States Census, Blackford County's population peaked at 17,123 in 1900, and it still has not returned to that zenith over 100 years later.<ref name="forstall" />

The end of the gas boom was especially difficult for the smaller communities in the county, since the loss of a single business has more of an impact on small communities. In the case of Millgrove, the community's major manufacturer (a glass factory) closed.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 11, 1911 |title=Millgrove Plant is to Move to Albany? |work=The Telegram (Hartford City, IN) |page=4}}</ref> For other communities, such as Mollie, the loss of the gas and oil workers meant that the local post office was a "waste of time", and [[Supply and demand|consumer demand]] at the general store was significantly diminished.<ref name="APostOffice" />

Improvements to the automobile and [[highway]]s, which coincided with the end of the gas boom, also contributed to the decline of the county's smaller communities. The automobile changed "business and shopping patterns at the expense of the small-town merchant". Small–town residents began to drive to larger communities to purchase goods, because of the wider selection.<ref>{{harvnb|McIlwraith|Muller|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8NS0OTXRlTMC&dq=small+towns+railroads+automobile&pg=PA336 336]|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref> The improved quality of automobiles and roads competed with passenger service on the railroads (and interurban lines), causing a decline in passenger traffic on the rails. Small towns associated with railroad stations suffered from the loss in traffic. In Blackford County, passenger service on the Lake Erie and Western Railroad line (owned by the [[New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad|Nickel Plate Road]] by that time) was discontinued in 1931, and the last interurban train ran on January 18, 1941.<ref name="AHist19" />

Although many workers left the area after the gas and oil bust, Montpelier's population eventually stabilized—and Hartford City's grew. Some manufacturers remained because of a lack of better alternatives. Hartford City's Sneath Glass Company, a major employer, continued operations until the 1950s.<ref name="Sneath">{{Cite news |date=October 2, 1952 |title=What's Wrong At Sneath? |work=Hartford City News Times |page=2}}</ref> Hartford City leaders attracted businesses such as [[Garage door opener#The electric opener|Overhead Door]] (1923) and [[3M]] (1955) to replace the former companies.<ref name="AHist86" /><ref name="AHist88" /> Overhead Door was a major employer in Hartford City for over 60 years. In the 1960s, Overhead Door moved its headquarters from Hartford City to Dallas, Texas, although its Hartford City manufacturing plant continued until the 1980s as a major manufacturer, when it began reducing its local presence. It ceased the Indiana operation in 2000.<ref>{{harvnb|Grant|2005|pp=214–215}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Grant's [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1999/ai_n19122834/?tag=content;col1 Overhead Door article]{{dead link|date=November 2016}} in volume 70 of the ''International Directory of Company Histories'' has been reproduced on a web page.<ref name="OHDhist">{{Cite news |year=2011 |title=Overhead Door Corporation |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1999/ai_n19122834/?tag=content;col1 |access-date=November 27, 2011 |publisher=CBS Interactive Business Network Resource Library |format=PDF}}{{dead link|date=November 2016}}</ref>
|group=Note}} The county lost another 200 jobs in 2011 when Hartford City's Key Plastics plant closed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 28, 2011 |title=Plastics Plant to Close, Idling 200 |url=http://www.theindychannel.com/news/26647755/detail.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131074904/http://www.theindychannel.com/news/26647755/detail.html |archive-date=January 31, 2011 |access-date=July 4, 2011 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company}}</ref>

Agriculture continues to be an important factor in the county's economy. Over 70&nbsp;percent of Blackford County's land is occupied by [[soybean]] or [[Maize|corn]] fields. Additional crops and livestock are also raised. Good returns in agriculture are not always reflected in the economy of nearby towns, as industrial agriculture has reduced the number of workers it needs, and family farms have declined. Many small towns in the "[[Corn Belt]]", such as the communities in Blackford County, continue to decline in size and affluence.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Belz |first=Adam |date=June 1, 2011 |title=Farm boom leaves Main Street wanting |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/2363240601.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+1%2C+2011&author=Adam+Belz&pub=USA+TODAY&edition=&startpage=A.6&desc=Farm+boom+leaves+Main+Street+wanting |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107084248/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/2363240601.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+1,+2011&author=Adam+Belz&pub=USA+TODAY&edition=&startpage=A.6&desc=Farm+boom+leaves+Main+Street+wanting |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |access-date=July 5, 2017 |work=USA Today |page=6A}}</ref>